Sri Lanka

Understand

History The indigenous inhabitants of the island are the Vedda people. Groups ancestral to the modern Veddas most likely as far back as 40,000 years ago. Today, Vedda people are a tiny minority and their languages and culture are on the verge of extinction due to cultural assimilation. Sri Lanka has more than 2,500 years of continuous written history, beginning with the historical epic Mahawansha, and was also mentioned in several ancient Indian texts. One of the most famous is the Ramayana, in which the island, which was referred to as Lanka, was the island fortress of the king Ravana, who captured the wife of Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Legend has it that Hanuman the monkey flew over to Lanka and destroyed the capital by setting it on fire, while Rama and his remaining troops later crossed over from the mainland by building a land bridge across the sea. The island's dominant ethnic group, the Sinhalese, arrived in Sri Lanka in the late 6th century BC, probably from Bengal or Maharashtra. Buddhism came to the island from the middle of the 3rd century BC, and a great civilization developed in cities like Anuradhapura (kingdom from c. 200 BCE to c. 1000 CE) and Polonnaruwa (c. 1070 to 1200). The oldest of Buddhist monuments date to the Anuradhapura period. It was a period where Sri Lanka traded with other civilisations in Asia and Europe, including the Roman Empire. Most notably, Sri Lanka exported cinnamon to the rest of the Old World. Other later famous kingdoms are the Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Gampola, Kandy and Jaffna Kingdoms. The second-largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, the Tamils, began to arrive shortly after the Sinhalese, and their influx was accelerated by the British. Occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th century and the Dutch in the 17th

See

Admission fees for foreigners to many of the tourist sites are up to ten times those for locals. And nowadays even the remotest Buddha statue or waterfall charges Rs 300 or more. Temple of the sacred tooth relic (Dhaladha Maligawa) is a historical structure built around the 16th century to treasure the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha. It was b

Getting there

Visa rules Nationals of most countries can apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) online, except for nationals of Maldives, Seychelles and Singapore, who do not need an ETA. It allows a stay in the country for 30 days and is valid for six months.Apply before entering the country via the official government website. The applicant will receive an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA). Visa charges are US$20 for SAARC countries (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan) and US$50 for others (2025), plus $2 processing fee. ETA is supposed to be ready in 2 days, though in practice they can be issued in only 10-20 minutes after the payment is received. Transit visas for up to 48 hours are issued free. As of May 2026, citizens of 40 countries are eligible for free ETAs. Alternatively, a tourist visa can be obtained without getting a prearranged ETA right at the Bandaranaike International Airport (at a visa desk in the arrival zone before customs) for US$60. Therefore, online visa is not a pre-condition to board a flight/vessel to Sri Lanka. As of 2025, the required return ticket, as noted in the visa instructions, was not checked for most (if not all) Westerners arriving at the airport. Even if it was and you didn't have one, you should be able to book one on the spot using the airport's WiFi. Important: immigration authorities at Colombo airport are very demanding with respect to the accuracy of the passport number on your electronic travel authorization obtained online. A single digit mistake is taken as a reason to force you to buy a new visa and refer you to some obscure government office in Colombo for refunds of your online payments. Be careful about 1 vs. I and 0 vs. O. The number should exa

Getting around

Sri Lanka has a strong public transport network linking nearly all tourist destinations, making independent travel very easy. Roads can be terrifying due to local driving traditions — see #Stay safe. Together with occasional massive crowds (especially on holidays), often lacking luggage space, buses may not seem like the most appealing way of travel for some. Yet, they offer great opportunities for interaction with locals, are cheap, plentiful and have different price points (express/local, public/private). Harassment of women travelling alone was frequent in the past, but Sri Lanka seems to have grown up since then.

By bus Bus travel in Sri Lanka is cheap. For those on a budget, buses are everywhere, although their safety and ease of use are questionable. As a foreigner you may be overcharged — simply ask for a ticket to your destination to get the correct fare, or ask a local beforehand. After a few days you will get a feel for the correct prices. As a guideline, the price for a normal local bus should be about Rs 5–10/km, the farther the cheaper (5 km ~ Rs 50, and 40 km ~ Rs 200), everything way beyond that is an indication of you getting overcharged. Buses run late, especially in cities, with services ending around 22:00. Google Maps displays incomplete information regarding bus routes and timetables on listings for bus stops. The best bus timetable information on Google Maps appears at bus depots; roadside stops typically have no routes indicated. Check the reviews, as sometimes reviewers attach photographs of the timetables available at the bus stop. There are three categories of buses in Sri Lanka: Public, Private, and Luxury. Public buses are run by the Sri Lanka Transport Board, and are basic, plain, red-painted buses. Routes and timetables for the public bu